Authors Notes: Chapter 3 of Defeat is Not the End. Please read and review! Constructive criticism is always welsome! Thanks for reading.

A man emerged from the luscious greens of the Viridian Forest in the mid-afternoon. The man wore a black trench coat which went down to his knees with black trousers and shoes. A white shirt could be seen from within the coat. On his head was a matching black fedora. With him he carried a black briefcase in his right hand.

The man, Giovanni, was now onto the path of Route 2 that would lead him to Pewter City, however, he had a second option. Having traversed the Kanto region in his youth, Giovanni knew that he could easily get to another city from this route via Diglett's Cave. Knowing that he had to escape the region, Giovanni chose to head through Diglett's Cave which would lead him to Vermilion City, the Regions port city. There he would b ablee to gain transport to another region, a region where he was unknown, not a criminal and thus able to move freely.

With his path decided Giovanni continued down the Route, eventually going off down a side path leading to the Cave. He arrived at the entrance of the cave by the late afternoon. His journey to the entrance was quiet, he did not see many people around the area which he found quite odd. The entrance to the cave was surrounded by a mixture of large and small boulders which formed a maze-path to the underground path that would lead him to Vermilion.

Upon entering the cave Giovanni could barely see. Moving deeper into the cave soon robbed him of his sight completely. 'Ah, it has been quite some time since I've been here after all. I had forgotten how dark this cave could be.'

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a pokeball. He released the pokemon within it. The light created from the energy within the ball revealed the pokemon released to be an electrode. The electrode looked like an oversized upside-down pokeball. 'Electrode, use flash,' commanded Giovanni to the ball pokemon.

The ball pokemon did as he asked and illuminated the cave with a bright light. He again reached into his pocket and withdrew a second pokeball. He released another pokemon into the cave. At first it was silent, as if no pokemon had been released. After several moments the ground a few feet away from him began to crack and break away. A pokemon that had three brown heads with pink noses and black eyes, a dugtrio, had appeared. The mole pokemon let out a cry of excitement as it realised it was in its original home. 'Dugtrio, I see you are glad to be visiting your original home.' The dugtrio let out a cry of agreement. 'Unfortunately we cannot hang about for long, Dugtrio. We need to get to Viridian quite quickly. If you will, please keep away the wild diglett and dugtrio while we are going through the tunnel.' The dugtrio let out a quiet, disappointed cry. Its middle head gave a slight nod and went back underground, which Giovanni assumed it was going to patrol the area around them to keep away any wild pokemon.

Giovanni and Electrode travelled through the cave for several hours with Dugtrio keeping away the wild pokemon. When they eventually made it out of the cave he withdrew both Electrode and Dugtrio while giving his thanks. The sky above was dark, stars hidden by thick cumulonimbus clouds. He still had several miles to reach Vermilion City. He sat next to the entrance of the cave, deciding to continue onto Vermilion in the morning.

Several hours late he awoke with the suns raise hitting his face. Giovanni's mouth formed a small smile. He had not awoken at dawn for many years, it was somewhat nostalgic. He continued his journey to Vermilion City. Shortly after leaving the exit of Diglett's Cave there was an elderly man who was running around full of energy. The elderly man had grey eyes and grey balding hair and beard. He wore casual clothing that did not suit a man of his age. This elderly man was quite excited about something.

'You! Over there! You!' said the elderly man as Giovanni tried to walk past him. 'Have you heard the news? It is quite spectacular!'

Giovanni looked at the man, confusion along with disinterest clearly seen on his face. He wanted to be rid of this man as soon as possible. 'No, I have not heard any news and I don't care to hear any, either.'

The elderly man looked at him with shock, 'How could you not have heard? It was historic!' began the man. 'In less than twenty four hours we have had two new champions!'

Giovanni's interest grew slightly, but not by much. He didn't care about such matters, or so he would have believed if it were not what the man was about to tell him.

'Yes, yes… It was televised as all championship matches are! Not many people get passed the Elite Four so they don't happen often…' he paused to take a deep breath. 'It was quite an event to have two championship matches so close together…within the same twenty four hours! First a boy named Blue won the title… I think he was from Pallet town… Grandson of Professor Oak I think… anyway… mere hours after becoming the League Champion he was challenged by another trainer from Pallet Town, a boy named Red! He is now our current League Champion!'

Hearing the name "Red" made Giovanni's blood boil. He hid the anger building inside of him as he heard this news. The boy who had defeated him, stood in his way for months, forced Team Rocket to its knees single-handedly became the champion. He couldn't believe this news, but had no choice to accept it for the moment. Through gritted teeth he spoke to the elderly man. '…Is that so? Indeed that is interesting. Now if you'll excuse me I have matters to attend to in Vermilion City.'

Giovanni continued in the direction of Vermilion in a fast pace. He did not want that elderly man to continue speaking to him. If he continued to listen to that man he would have most likely not been able to keep his temper under his control.

He arrived in Vermillion in the mid-morning. Vermillion was filled with the sounds and smell of the ocean. The sounds of boat horns could be heard in the distance. The path Giovanni was going down gave him the perfect view of the docks, which had several cruise ships and many small fishing boats and yachts in the bays. The residents of the city could be seen everywhere. Some young children playing games, teenagers causing a ruckus, adults going to their places of work, elderly people relaxing, looking out into the ocean with their partners. But with all the people in the city, Giovanni knew of one which could help him. An old resident of Vermillion. To find him he would have to navigate to the north east of the city.

By manoeuvring himself through multiple alleyways he found himself on a large plot of land. The land had mostly been flattened with only a few rocks and boulders in odd places. This land was owned by the man Giovanni was looking for. Walking for a few minutes through the plot of land he found the man he was looking for. The man was about twenty years older than Giovanni. The man was short and had snow white hair with bright blue eyes. Beside the white haired man was a machop that was used to help him clear the land of rocks and boulders. Giovanni found this man quite pitiful. Years ago when he had first started his journey he had met this man. All these years later and he is still in the same position: unable to build on the plot of land he bought because of the lack of funds to continue with the build. What was truly amusing is that many valuable goods could be found on the plot of land which could easily have sold to get the funds to build what he wanted to build on the land.

Giovanni caught the attention of the man immediately. 'Well, well. It has been quite some time Giovanni!' said the elderly man.

Giovanni smiled. 'Indeed is has, Lucius. I have been quite busy. And I'm afraid I cannot stay here for long. I was hoping that you could help me with something.'

Lucius raised an eyebrow, 'Really? I can help? Well, if I really can help I'll do what I can my friend.'

Giovanni gave a nod in thanks. 'I need to leave this region. Do you know of any ships currently here that will be going to another region?'

'Yes, there are a few,' said Lucius while he gave a nod. The elderly man took a moment to think of one of the ships in the city. 'There is one ship, the SS Aqua that can take you to the Johto Region. I think it will be leaving tomorrow morning.'

Giovanni's smile turned quickly into a frown. 'I'm afraid Johto will not be suitable for me at the moment. Are there any other ships?'

'Mmm,' Lucius went back into thought for several moments. 'Oh yes! There is one going to the Hoenn Region. I think it was the SS Tidal. That should be heading out this afternoon.'

His frown reformed into a smile, 'Hoenn? Yes… That would suit my needs for the moment. Do you know of a way I could get onto the ship?'

Lucius looked at Giovanni with a simple face, 'With a ticket.'

Once more a frown formed on Giovanni's face. 'And where exactly am I going to get a ticket on short notice?'

The old man laughed for a moment. He found the situation quite amusing. 'Well, it just so happens I was given a ticket for the SS Tidal to visit the Hoenn Region, but I don't really want to go there. I have no money for such a vacation. You can have the ticket.'

Lucius handed over the SS Tidal ticket to Giovanni. The frown remained on his face, 'Thank you my friend. I appreciate this. I will be sure to reward you for this in the future.'

Giovanni turned to leave the plot of land and the old man. He looked at the ticket, it told him which port the ship was docked in, which cabin he would have on board and the time of departure. The departure time being at one in the afternoon, which gave him several hours before he needed to be on the ship. But he did not trust such things, perhaps it was just paranoia, but Giovanni felt he needed to get on the ship as early as possible.

He manoeuvred back through the alleyways until he was near the docks. He could see the ship he was going to be boarding. It was a large luxury cruise ship with "SS Tidal" engraved onto its hull. He made his way to the boarding station. The sailor took the ticket and passed it back saying 'You may board, Sir, enjoy your trip.'

Before he could board the ship, however, there was shouting behind him. 'Wait! Please wait! You there in the black coat! Wait a moment!'

The person shouting was a short, blue haired woman. She wore a blue police uniform. This was one of the many Officer Jenny's of the Kanto region. At this point Giovanni began to panic. Why did she stop him? Did she know who he was? Was she there to arrest him? He didn't quickly calmed himself down and asked the officer, 'Yes? Can I help you?'

She looked at Giovanni for a moment, 'No, it is I who can help you.' The police officer held out a black wallet for him to take. 'I saw you drop this outside. You should really be more careful with your belongings. You would have likely lost that if I had not picked it up for you.'

Giovanni was dumbfounded. He had not expected that. He gratefully accepted the wallet from the police officer and the two bid their thanks and farewells. Giovanni proceeded to board the ship, the only thought in his mind being how incompetent that Officer Jenny was, and how the other Officer Jenny's, her cousins, in the other cities will never let her live this encounter down.